Create and personalize online surveys quickly with SoGoSurvey's easy to use online platform. This survey tool will work on ANY device. Step by step wizards guide you through the process of adding images, videos, logos, and more. There are many features including steps for using the survey process and even receiving email alerts for negative responses. Choose from over 25 sample surveys to modify or start your own from scratch. Add questions in multiple-choice format or more complex matrix grid formats. Share completed surveys via email invitations or social networking links. The free account allows you to create up to 15 surveys with 75 questions and up to 200 responses. Use this tool anywhere a quick, simple poll is required and on any device! This tool works on mobile device browsers.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

If you've never used a poll before or would like to like to use survey information more effectively, click on Solutions in the top menu, and slide down to K-12 to begin. There you will find field-tested templates for schools and a link for the "survey process." Share polls on BYOD devices or laptops/tablets to assess prior knowledge as you start a new unit and ask questions about the material. If you do not have individual devices, project the survey to uncover misconceptions by having students discuss in groups why they would choose a particular answer. Use for daily quiz questions as a formative assessment. Use a class account to have student groups alternate to create a new poll for the next day. Place a poll on your teacher web page as a homework inspiration or to ask parent questions and increase involvement. Older students may want to include polls on their student blogs to increase reader engagement. Have students create polls for the start of project presentations. Use polls to generate data for math class (graphing), during elections, or for critical thinking activities dealing with the interpretation of statistics. Engage students using "real" data from a survey about issues and current events that matter to them.

Let the games begin with ARIS, an open-source, web-based platform to create and play mobile games, tours, and interactive stories that will run on iOS devices. ARIS stands for Augmented Reality for Interactive Storytelling. ARIS is an authoring environment for non-programmers, and also a toolbox of useful code for people that want to make their own interactive mobile apps. You will experience a virtual world of interactive characters, items, and media using GPS and QR Codes through Google Maps reviewed here. During the games, you can trade items with other characters, drop them on the map, get them from characters, or have them taken away. Download the free ARIS app to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to play the games. After creating your player account, select from a list of ARIS experiences. Each game will start on the quest screen, and the quests will likely tell you to go somewhere physically. Open the map screen to see your position and destination to begin the game. QR codes are used to help ARIS determine your position as you complete the quests. A few games contain codes that can be used to access some of the content remotely.

Use the ARIS Editor to create your own games under the "Make Games" section of the site. A separate account is needed to play games, but you can use the same username and password if you want. You'll begin with a Google map on the main screen where you can search to zoom into a particular place in the world. Use the object pallet located on the left-side of your screen to create characters, items, and plaques. Drag and drop the items you authored onto your map to build your interactive game. When your game is ready to publish, you need to set up your iOS device to work with the server for the authoring tool. You need to change the server URL under the ARIS settings to http://arisgames.org/stagingserver1.

In the Classroom

Use ARIS to teach your students game design. Connect your students more deeply with their surroundings using this augmented reality experience. Begin by having your students create mock-ups of ARIS games using pen and paper. Create interactive games around your school, campus, or community for your students to complete. Send your students on scavenger hunts to explore geometric shapes, nature, and history. Have your students create games for a field trip or visitors to explore your community. Create educational scavenger hunts for your students or have them create their own scavenger hunt for their classmates. Creating a game would be a wonderful challenge for your gifted students to take their knowledge beyond the required curriculum. Create mysteries for the students to solve as they explore their surroundings or challenge your students to create mysteries for their classmates to solve.

Meet your ELA standards as you teach history! Explore over 40 free lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards. Browse all lesson plans or use the search feature to find lessons by keywords or grade level. Every lesson contains all materials and procedures needed. Sign up for a free subscription using your school email address to access all information.

In the Classroom

Use ideas from the lesson plans to supplement your current teaching materials. Have students create a simple infographic sharing their learning from the notes they took during the lesson. Use Easel.ly, reviewed here, or Venngage, reviewed here. Challenge students to find a photo that represents a part of the lesson taught. Have students create a multimedia presentation using UtellStory, reviewed here. This tool allows narrating and adding text to a picture. Use Creative Commons images (with credit, of course). Try Compfight, reviewed here.

Find a gem of an infographic with a multitude of action verbs for the different tiers of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. This colorful, eye-pleasing infographic of verbs starts at the top of the taxonomy with higher order thinking skills (HOTS). Learn some new HOTS words to use yourself or with students.

In the Classroom

Post this infographic in your classroom to discuss higher order thinking skills vs lower order thinking skills and where the task at hand would fall. Keep this infographic handy as you develop projects and new lesson ideas. Embed the infographic on your class website or blog.

e-learning for kids' is a collection of five interactives for elementary students to learn different types of communication skills. The lessons cover a range of topics including the difference between verbal and non-verbal communication, and the skills for being successful at both. Learn about shyness and assertiveness, public speaking, conflict, types of communication, and general communication skills. Choose any lesson to begin and follow the prompts to complete the activity.

In the Classroom

e-learning for kids is the ideal place to start a unit on communication. Use the overview about communication as a mini-lesson on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Create a link to lessons for students to complete on classroom computers. Students learn through practice and discussion of real and imaginary situations. These lessons may also be useful for autistic support, emotional support, or counselor discussion groups. Use the ideas for activities at Out On a Limb, reviewed here. Be sure to provide a link to both sites on the class webpage or newsletter for students to use at home.

Bring art alive for young students. Paint and color, clay, fabric and fiber, drawing, construction, and print are the six strands of visual art covered by I Am An Artist. Click on a strand to view short videos about six minutes in length designed to keep your attention. Each strand also has a "Look and Respond" stimulating slide show with discussion questions. The "Can You?" section under each visual strand provides steps for hands-on explanation. I Am An Artist allows you to explore the visual arts with a range of materials and tools, which allow students to express their world in a visual, tangible form. The "For Teachers" section provides child-centered lessons developed to foster creativity and design with printable activity sheets. The site also provides weblinks and interactive games on a wide range of visual arts topics. Explore the I Am An Artist Gallery for examples. Find information about how to submit your own work to the gallery. The content for I Am An Artist has been created in consultation with Irish teachers.

In the Classroom

Become art smart with resources from the I Am An Artist site. Use the collection of videos to flip your art instruction. Search through the lesson plans and activity sheets to provide hands-on, minds-on activities for your students. Use the videos or the slide shows as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Have students or groups collect ideas and thoughts from the slides using Padlet, reviewed here. Use a visual blogging tool such as Check This (reviewed here) to upload the students art work - no registration required! The students can blog about their work and even create an online portfolio. Host an art show at your school for families and the communities to showcase the students' creativity. Your students can describe their work as visitors explore the gallery. Use the activities as stations during your art show for participants to create their own art. Many of the lessons on the site are cross-curricular.

The Global Read Aloud offers you a chance to share a book with other students from around the world. This program is in its fourth year and has had over 200,000 participants. The Global Read Aloud is a six-week event that ends in November. Announcement of the book list and the author study selections occur each spring. Student involvement starts in the fall each year. Teachers, parents, and individual students are invited to join. Choose a book to read and sign up at the very beginning of each October. There is a Google form on the main page for registration. On this main page, you will find several suggested ways to participate: The Global Read Aloud wiki, Edmodo, reviewed here, Kidblog, reviewed here, and several others. Also, find a list of teachers who have already started connecting and their Edmodo links.

In the Classroom

Start looking at The Global Read Aloud program before the school year starts. The author study can be useful for students who have difficulty reading chapter books. There are also pictures books available for younger students. Choose the book early, or get your students involved once school starts. Have students vote for the book they want to read by using a program like Wejit, reviewed here. WeJit allows students to write why they want to read that book. As you are reading the book, you may want to have small groups research and investigate the setting, author, inferences, references, and allusions to other books, history, and places. Book Drum, reviewed here, is a good example with ideas for "profiling" a book. Researching and presenting their findings will help students with deep reading experience required by the Common Core Standards. Have students create a class wiki modeled after Book Drum. To learn more about using wikis in your classroom, check out the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through.

Fake iPhone text is a tool to create fake screenshots of a series of iPhone text messages. Enter your conversation including name and message. Click the link "Create" to view the picture. Take a screenshot or copy the URL to share.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Have students create texts between two characters from a book or two famous people. Create short poetry in text message form. Provide some opening text and ask students to write their ideas for the other person's answers. Use a text sequence as a prompt for creative writing. Have students practice creating a short dialogue or questions and answers. Create a fake text of a conversation and have students use inference skills to determine what happened before and after the conversation. Teach proper texting etiquette and digital citizenship using this tool. Use a fake text on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to display word definitions in a new way. Create fake texts of homework or project reminders and post them on your class wiki or web page. Make fake text book promotions to share on the dust jackets.

The Fun Theory is a collection of experiments captured on video to find out if making tasks more fun can change people's behavior. One of the most popular videos on The Fun Theory is a staircase in a subway station. The stairs were converted into working piano keys as a way to convince commuters to take the stairs over the escalator. Another test uses a game-based scenario to recycle bottles. Students and colleagues at all levels are subject to the same ineffective carrots-and-sticks. Why search around for methods to motivate when fun is the key to unlocking a world of possibilities? A contest also encourages visitors to upload their own applications of The Fun Theory. After watching the videos, you will see the evidence that appealing to an individual's intrinsic motivation is better on many levels. Make the road less traveled FUN! The collection of Fun Theory videos is an excellent resource to support game-based learning in your classroom. If your district blocks YouTube, they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Are you looking to make learning fun? The Fun Theory collection of videos is a great collection of experiments to teach your class the Scientific Method. Use the videos to identify each step of the process. Share the videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Challenge your students to brainstorm their own Fun Theory ideas for school, home, or your community. In art or music class, brainstorm ways that you can use FUN methods to learn techniques. Use bubbl.us (reviewed here) to organize your ideas. Host your own Fun Theory competition, and invite community and school board members to vote on their favorite experiment. Spice up your traditional science fair project with a fun and engaging fun theory experiment. Use Animoto (reviewed here) or another presentation tool to show your Fun Theory experiment and results. Challenge your colleagues to create their own Fun Theory experiment to better the school environment for your students or staff. For Earth Day, make it a class project to design a Fun Theory way to change human behavior to promote greener practices. Explore these ideas in a psychology class about motivation or as part of a study skills unit so students find ways to motivate themselves for better work habits!

Listbrew is, quite simply, an online list creator and notepad. Create an account using your email and a password. Then start making lists! Type a title onto the notepad, and add items to your list. Login to your account from any device to view and update lists at any time. You have the options to change colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Although Listbrew has some shortcomings, primarily the inability to share lists with others, it may be useful to create lists for personal use. Create to-do lists for each week, semester, or school year. Share Listbrew with students as you help them learn to organize items for large projects including due dates. Once registered, students can access their lists on any device.

What is Milq? This tool is like the Pinterest for videos, music, and information. This user-generated network can curate and organize "channels of culture" on the Internet. Organize content by specific topics. Organize material into collections called "beads." You create a specific bead by asking a general question such as "How to" or a topic such as "Powerful Poems." There are also beads for music of certain decades. Other Milq members contribute to these beads by adding video or audio clips. Star beads that you like and add them to collections. Add video and audio clips to beads that you find. Many of the videos are from YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube, but Milq will not allow you to save or share such downloads. Note: Be sure to view specific collections in advance before sharing with students. Even though offensive content was not found in the public gallery, that gallery is unmoderated.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this resource to collect or add specific video and audio content for any subject matter that can be shared in class. Use the existing beads to get a feel for a certain time period. (Our review team couldn't help listening to 80's music videos and reminiscing.) Since the tool is completely public, this tool is probably best used via a teacher-controlled account or by mature students with parent permission. Develop specific questions to answer about the time period as they are a time capsule of history. In a music or art class, view various beads about music genres to compare and contrast. Look at cultural/social influences on the music as well as the influence of the music on culture. In world language classes, you can collect a bead of videos for students to experience the pop culture of another land. If you search "education," you will find collections of videos about educational change and more. Use Milq to collect thought-provoking videos to use in professional development or to collect videos to support curriculum (and collaborate with other teachers on these collections).

Gather formative assessment data to better identify students needing help. Document data from a variety of sources: exit tickets, online activities, pop quizzes, chalkboard problems, verbal questioning, and more. Use a mobile device to enter student assessments as you mingle and work with them. Click Help to view videos (hosted on Vimeo) that explain how it works. Document correct or incorrect responses with one tool. Use Metryx to choose a skill. Choose a student and enter quantitative or qualitative data. View an analysis and graphs of data. Use this tool to separate students into groups based on mastery achievement. Evaluate the whole class or view trends over time. Add classes, students, and skills. Use the Track, Analyze, and Differentiate tabs to enter and evaluate collected data. You can upload student data from Excel to save time.

In the Classroom

Use this tool to keep track of student mastery of specific skills. Use this tool to help group students to identify those that need more help mastering various concepts. Develop a plan for differentiating instruction for specific groups or individuals.

Create an integrated video presentation or screencast using Movenote. Add content from Google Drive, a computer, or just about any device. Movenote will work with nearly any format (doc, PDF, images, and even video). Uploading your documents or video creates the slides, and you can start recording. Simply swipe to synchronize the slides to the video. Registration requires your name and email address. You can register with your Google account. Share the Movenote by embedding, or use Gmail, Google+, Google Drive, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, and other social media. Recording requires Shockwave and the approval to access your device's sound and camera.

In the Classroom

Encourage your students to use this tool for projects and reports. Use this tool for analysis of a lab report, the culminating project for literature circles, book reviews, explaining a math problem, or a digital portfolio for artwork or music. Have students record their authentic language (reading a Spanish or French paragraph or ESL/ELLs reading English) to listen to their pronunciation. Students can take pictures on a field trip and share them via Movenote to show their parents what they learned. Students could illustrate a short story they wrote, using the audio to record the story as the illustrations slide past. Use this program when you have to be away from the classroom instead of writing out all the directions for a sub. Use it for absent students to stay on top of what has been discussed, assigned, or completed in class. Use it to explain how to solve a math problem and post it on the class website for students to refer to at home. Use it as a screencast for giving feedback for student writing. This tool would be useful for blended or flipped learning, giving students time to absorb information about content, leaving class time for individualized learning.

ComSlider is free online slideshow creator. Upload your images up to 3mb each, choose a template, then let comSlider work its magic! Customize your slideshow with other options such as width, height, and transition options using controls on the left. Register to save and receive html code for embedding and sharing.

In the Classroom

Have students tell a short story by adding text to pictures that they have taken or found online. Have students search for Creative Commons licensed images about topics that they are studying and record a short slideshow. To find Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try Compfight, reviewed here. Create a comSlider presentation for class field trips or activities to share on your website or blog. Have students create presentations as book talks for the library/media center.

Studeous helps teachers create beautiful websites that become a private, social network for the class. Free accounts offer features such as announcements, messaging, student and parent accounts, and a discussion area. Upload up to 100 photos, 15 files, and 5 classes per account.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use Studeous to personalize a website for each of your classes. Post homework and files for student use at home. Use the discussion area for students to respond to class discussions or post a question of the week for student response.

Cellsea is a free online photo editor. To begin, upload any image from your computer or load from an image URL. Features include drawing on images, re-sizing, cropping, correcting brightness, and adding special effects. Save edited images when finished or use links to share via email or Flickr. Optional log-in with Facebook or Twitter enables the ability to share via these social networks.

In the Classroom

Pictures taken in the classroom often need to be edited in some way, and this online photo editor provides many of the options needed plus a few interesting effects. With no registration, have students upload a picture, create effects, and save again on their computer. Advise students to use pictures that they have permission to alter. Using their own photos is one way to ensure this. Be sure to check your school's acceptable use policy. Students should be aware of how to upload and then find their creation. When using pictures for any classroom projects, lessons, or activities, use this service.

Dynamic Learning Maps are assessments that are being created to administer to individuals with disabilities to inform instruction. The field test will be completed in the fall of 2014. There is tons of information to look at for Dynamic Learning Maps. Three different types of professional development modules are available now, and are about which students have the most significant disabilities. Get professional development on the Universal Design for Learning. Training modules include Principles of Effective English Language Arts Instruction and Standards of Mathematical Practice. Included are facilitator's guides and handouts. Find some exemplar text supports for students with disabilities. Parents and students with disabilities can also find suggested resources to aid in educational pursuits.

In the Classroom

This site is not just for resource teachers. All teachers need to reach all of their students under their instruction, and learn to use inclusion effectively. Review ideas presented and ways to provide support for your students with disabilities. Under the More Information tab, slide down to teachers and learn more about the Tar Heel Reader library which is a very large library of open-source, accessible, texts for individuals with disabilities of all ages. Under the same tab view the resources for parents and students to find links you may want to recommend to parents.

Looking for best practices and ways to provide evidence for current practices? Discover Doing What Works! Find research and resources in the subject areas of reading, math, science, English fluency, and how to teach effectively for teachers and administrators. Current national reports reflect recent trends in education. Information is also geared to educating parents.

In the Classroom

Use Doing What Works to increase your knowledge of best practices and have research backing up your educational decisions. Need information and evidence for grants? Doing What Works is the go-to site! This site is a great site to recommend to eager parents to help them understand current educational practices, and also parent resources.

Create a free poll or survey and share via email, website, blog, or even a social network. Engage all students with their active involvement with 99 Polls! It is a great tool that makes looking at data easy and interesting. Embed the URL in your website or email and you are good to go!

In the Classroom

Liven up your classroom with 99 Polls. Use it as an anticipatory guide for introducing new content. Get kids thinking by asking tough questions leading to debates. 99 Polls can also serve as a class voting device. Make school-wide decisions with students, faculty, or parents! During reading week, discover your class, school, or school families' favorite books, or activities. During election time, this is an easy voting solution. At the beginning of the school year, 99 Polls is a great ice breaker. Students can use 99 Polls as a study tool or even quiz maker. Use as a data collection device in science or math.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from July 2014, opens in Adobe Connect. Explore Gmail, Google Calendar, Super Searching on Google, Google Maps, and more. Explore ways to safely use Gmail in class. Learn how to use Google Calendar to get organized. Explore the world using Google Maps. Familiarize yourself with Google Trends, Google Correlate, Blog Searches, and more. Participants will be given time to explore. A question/answer period will also be available. Prerequisite: All participants MUST have a Google account. This session is for teachers at Beginner to Intermediate Technology Comfort Levels.

As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, teachers will: Find ways to incorporate both Google Calendar and Gmail in your classroom/position. Browse and explore Google Trends, Google Correlate, Blog Searches, and more. Learn about and navigate around Google Maps. (Follow-up) Create a lesson for your own classroom (or position) using one of the Google tools shared.

Applicable ISTE-T standards (2008)*: 1a and b, 2b and c, 3a and d
* The text of these standards is copyrighted. Please read the full text at ISTE's standards page

In the Classroom

Get organized this year with Google Calendar. Learn about using gmail in your classroom. Take your students on a trip around the world - make them learn while they are having fun exploring! The possibilities are endless! Save yourself time searching using some of these search secrets shared during this session. Learn about search tools appropriate for even the youngest elementary students. Take a look at the resource page full of MANY great sites and ideas! Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.